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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

It is not star wars but it is most certainly a star wars story. Set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, Rogue One tells the story of a group of rebels who attempt to steal plans for a new super-weapon otherwise known as the Death-star.

SPOILER WARNING

Rogue One primarily focuses on Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) whose father Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) had been enlisted by Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) and the empire. Years later the rebellion free Jyn from captivity in order to find her father and uncover the plans.

There is a bit of a time skip between the two events which did seem quite jarring, however it did bring us into quick contact with a reprogrammed imperial droid called K-2SO (Alan Tudyk) who is wonderfully sarcastic and his friend Cassian Andor (Diego Luna).

They are searching for Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), a turncoat imperial shuttle pilot who has an encounter with Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) and his weird truth squib. Saw Gerrera doesn’t get a lot of action and neither does Bodhi although both go out with a bang.

Around the same time Jyn encounters a blind force believer called Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) and a solider called Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang). Chirrut’s mantra of I am one with the force and the force is with me was pretty cool and used to great effect later on in the film.

One of my favourite scenes in the film was when Chirrut Imwe takes on a whole group of storm troopers by himself. Another was when we got to see the Death-Star in action as it was a great reminder of what our protagonists were up against.

James Earl Jones pops up in this film as the voice of Darth Vader. Vader isn’t really needed in this film and his quip to Krennic felt a bit weird. However his final scene where he cuts through the rebels with ease is easily one of the best bits of the entire film.

The finale of this film takes place on a new planet called Scarif with action on the beaches, in the sky and space. The battles themselves were incredible but the stand out moments go to Chirrut Imwe and K-2SO who both made incredible sacrifices to get the job done.

The ending of Rogue One also ties quite neatly into A New Hope which I found to pretty cool. It may not be a perfect movie but it worked pretty well for what it was and I had a really good watching it.